Obama has a certificate of live birth from Hawaii. Many think that is all that is necessary to assure that Obama has the necessary citizenship to be legally the US President.

Obama has lived in many non-US places and had a parent with British citizenship.

It is not clear from Obama’s sparcely provided record as to whether he or his parents ever claimed benefits for his being the citizen of any country other than the USA. It is obviously within the realm of possibilities. Some will assume in the spirit of confidentially that such a question should never be asked of a person seeking the Presidency.

For example, college applications may have been a clear temptation to claim non-US citizenship in order to gain benefits.

If the answer to the question of benefits from the citizenship of another country were to be answered affirmatively and Obama never renounced that citizenship, many would consider that the reading of the U.S constitution would leave him unqualified to be president.

Others would view that what he decided to do with the proclamation of US or other citizenship in the past should stay private and in the past and a person that lived in other countries in his early years should not be asked such questions as a pre-requisite for meeting the qualifications of the US Presidency.

Others would view it differently and do not consider themselves “Birthers” or “Tea Baggers”.

But many of you like to broadbrush and use slurs because it makes you feel good. Just remember as you are taking such pleasure that you are not being thoughtful about it.

Exactly, for every person who believes Obama was born in Kenya, you have a Democrat who believes Bush allowed 9/11 after stealing the first of two elections. People like conspiracy theories.

As much as Republicans hate the Daily Kos poll that was released last week – there aren’t yet any serious challenges to its methodology, or to its results.

QUESTION: Do you believe Barack Obama was born in the United States, or not?
NO 36%
YES 42%
NOT SURE 22%

Those results suggest that in fact only 42% of Republicans consider birthers to be wackos. Meanwhile, 36% of Republicans are birthers … and 22% obviously don’t think the birthers are wacko, or they’d have responded “Yes”.

Propoganda works.

“To make sure that as many people as possible don’t even listen to Obama, because they doubt his legitimacy. And from all evidence, it’s working quite well.”

You give them far more credit than they deserve. The reason many people aren’t listening to Obama is because the perception has become that he isn’t saying anything of substance.

http://www.newshounds.us/2009/07/14/fox_news_legitimizes_birthers.php

Then, interspersed through town hall meetings across the country, you’ve been seeing Republicans without courage finally giving in and agreeing with birthers, rather than taking an unequivocal stand – which only adds fuel to the fire.

November 19, 2009. A constituent of Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) asking his congressman why Republicans won’t do anything about the “eligibility issue.” It makes for awkward viewing, as Garrett’s staff clearly wants a change of subject from an audience that seems to be fine with pushing the question. At around 4:40 in the video, the congressman finally engages.

“Obviously, there is no political solution to it,” says Garrett. “Even if the entire Republican Party was united on the issue–”

He’s cut off by another constituent. “Have him show his birth certificate! It’s as simple as that! None of this ‘talk about it, talk about it’ — just let’s see the birth certificate!”

“I agree,” says Garrett

Meanwhile, chief birther Orly Taitz was bragging last summer I am in total disbelief and greatly honored. Eric Cantor, Republican whip, second ranked Republican congressman has joined congresswoman Mary Bono and became my friend on Facebook. To me it means that the leadership of the Republican party understands the importance of the issues and legal cases I brought forward.

And how many Republicans in Congress co-signed the “birther bill”? 10? A dozen?

It’s nice for Steele – he gets a chance to talk about how these birthers are “distractions” … but he doesn’t actually seem to impose any consequences on the birther coalition in Congress. Thus, he gets to act reasonable while their nasty work is still taking place.

The birther movement isn’t even supported by much of the GOP base. Redstate.com summarily bans birthers off their website.

But it’s a grass-roots thing that is kept afloat by the Internet, just like most other conspiracy theories. UFO nutcases have flourished for a long time despite getting no official support from anywhere.

Believe me, until recently a piss poor Dem candidate had no trouble getting elected. Dems outnumber Repubs 4 to 1 in MA.

You see, there are many Americans who are predisposed to support the elected President of the United States. And so Republicans needs to convince these people to NOT support the President, so that the President can fail.

Thus, from the day Clinton was elected, we heard a constant drumbeat about his “draft dodging” – the idea being that since he did what he could to avoid serving in uniform during the Vietnam war (albeit by legal means, like a Cheney or any other number of neocons) that should disqualify him from being Commander in Chief.

With Obama, the idea is to discredit his eligibilty for being elected President itself.

The charges are given widespread airtime among the media, and credence by even some elected Republican officials, specifically because they know how valuable a tool it is if you can convince some number of Americans that the President needs to be opposed not because of his policies, but because of who he is.

The particular value in this tool is that it’s like a minister telling his flock that a certain person is “sent from the devil” – at that point, those who are convinced (or who even have doubt) will no longer even listen to any case the person might make.

And that is the point of birtherism. To make sure that as many people as possible don’t even listen to Obama, because they doubt his legitimacy. And from all evidence, it’s working quite well.